Upgrading from 3.0.1 to 3.1.2...jail breaking at the same time

As you may know, I have been trying to figure out how to move on to Firmware 3.1.2 safely from 3.0.1 without screwing up my iphone. Undoubtedly you may think that there are plenty of tutorials available online, and I acknowledge this. What I was concerned about was that I used a particular method to jailbreak my 3GS, which I can no longer remember (i think it was purp1erain, or something). Never the less, there are a number of articles describing the dangers of jail breaking an iPhone and Apple had also made a statement stating that it is not worth the risk.

So with that in mind, my $1200 investment had to be secure and hence my angst in making sure that i was doing everything correctly.

For anyone that is in the same position as me, I hope the following will help you.

I have now successfully upgraded my firmware from 3.0.1 to 3.1.2 and have jail broken my iphone. To do this follow this tutorial that I used from www.redmondpie.com.

Basically this is what I did:

1. I downloaded Pwnage tool 3.1.4, click here


2. I downloaded firmware version 3.1.2, click here


3. Backed up my iphone data:
   
   
   • Connect your iphone to your computer
   
   
   • When the Iphone icon appears, right click (or CTRL + Click) and select Back Up
   
   
4. Once this is backed up, open pwnage tool and follow the steps in the guide from redmondpie.com
5. After you have successfully completed jail breaking your iphone, if your iphone was previously unlocked(which means that you can use any carrier and it is not locked to a particular carrier), then make sure that you unlock it. This had caused some tears for me since after the jail break, I could not make calls until I had unlocked the phone.
6. Once you have done all of this, open up itunes and allow it restore the information from the backup that you made earlier.

Unfortunately, the downside about jail breaking and getting applications from third party sites is that after the upgrade you need to hunt them down and re-download them. Sometimes, the links are broken etc... I guess this is a small price to pay for the convenience of having the freedom of a jail broken phone. From now on, I think I'll backup my IPAs even the ones that I downloaded via Installous, I'll write up a post about this once i have done this.

Thanks